An Avatar in Fiore
by Pelthain
Summary: *Moved from Fairy Tail Section* At some point in the future, Avatar Ronan wakes up in a strange kingdom, full of strange phenomena and even stranger people. Why is he here? Who put him here? And, more importantly, who are these people whose names and faces he didn't know he knew? Warning: OC
1. Chapter 1: The Start of Something New

**_OK, this is my first fanfiction EVER so please review so I know if I'm doing at all well._**

**_This all started out because I was wondering how different characters would survive in different universes, and this seemed like a good combination. Slight AU (because duh, new character inserted). Also I'm not actually fully caught up on FT, so there may be some inconsistencies here and there._**

**_Finally, thank you to my writing-buddy Shadowonthewall6 who encouraged me to write this when I suggested it to him as an idea. Check out Scarlet Wind and Search the Wind, two excellent One Piece Fanfics!_****_ We also have something in the works that we'll be doing together, so watch this space!_**

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_Chapter 1_

Ronan landed on his back, and the air was knocked out of his body. He lay there for a few seconds, trying to inhale. He could hear, no, _feel_ rumbling in the ground. Not too far off, an explosion so bright he could see it through his closed eyes rocked the ground underneath him, and he could hear someone shouting- no, were there two people? Fighting? He couldn't quite tell. Shaking his head, he looked around and realised it was night time. _How long have I been asleep?_ He wondered, standing up. He heard someone approaching, and quickly hid behind a nearby tree. Looking onto the path, he saw a woman holding up another figure, whispering to it.

"You're mine now," the woman almost hissed. "We will be together, and I won't let anyone hurt you." Instinctively, he knew this woman was dangerous. He tried to look at her as the two figures passed, but the darkness shrouded her face. After he was sure she was gone, Ronan started to head in the opposite direction. The sounds of fighting got louder, although further away he could still feel the rumbling. _Something big's happening here. _He thought._ But what_? _Have I walked into some sort of apocalypse?_

He ran into a clearing, and there he saw- well, he had no idea what. A boy and girl, were apparently fighting against what looked to be a great giant of a man- completely white, very tall, and with a huge head accompanying a tiny face.

"Look out!" cried a high-pitched voice. Looking for the source, Ronan saw the strangest sight yet- a blue cat using a pair of white wings to fly. It was gesturing at Ronan while looking towards the pink haired boy.

"Another one of them," the boy said. "I'll take care of him. Fire Dragon's… ROAR!" Out of the boy's mouth came a mass of orange and red flames, directed straight at Ronan! Although confused as to why the boy was attacking him, Ronan acted on instinct, and parted the flames around him and circled them above his head, unsure what to do with them. The girl, the boy, and the cat gasped. Ronan saw the boy getting ready for another one, so, making a snap decision, he sent the flames he already had straight at the man with the big head. If he was going to cast his lot in here, it would be with the humans.

The man with the big head barely reacted.

"Another one fawning over me," he said, apparently to himself. "I'm sorry, but I just like women more. Isn't that right, my little blonde beauty?" he said this last bit to the girl, who inexplicably started moving towards the man, her feet dragging along the floor of the clearing.

"Lucy!" shouted the boy and the cat, in unison.

"Stop this!" shouted the girl, presumably called Lucy.

"But Mr. Cursey wants to play," shouted the man, shaking a doll he was holding in his hand. As he did this, Ronan noticed Lucy began to shake at the same time. "I know you want to come and play with me Lu-chan."

_Voodoo? I thought that was a myth…_

"Happy!" shouted the boy. "Get that doll!"

"Aye sir!" shouted the cat, and began to fly around the back of the giant.

"Oh, you're not going to get me like that," the man said. The man moved his hand up towards the cat, and Ronan realised he was going to attack it. He quickly changed his stance, and sent a large piece of the ground at the man's hand, changing its trajectory. He assumed that the doll was controlling the girl, Lucy, and that getting it would change this fight for the better. Ronan jumped in front of Kain, waving his arms to distract him.

"Oh, you're going to regret that!" Kain promised, and turned his hand towards Ronan. Ronan closed his eyes, feeling the ground around him, and, without warning, punched his arms forward, sending several large pieces of the ground at Kain.

Natsu- _How do I know his name_?- had recovered from the shock of his attack having been averted, and started punching Kain with his fists covered in flame.

'_That's a neat trick'_ noted Ronan. _'I'm gonna have to ask how he does that.'_ Lucy was nearby, flying around helplessly as Kain tried to dodge their attacks, but suddenly she dropped to the ground. The 3 fighters and Happy realised the same thing at the same time- the doll was on the floor. Happy went for it, grabbing it milliseconds before Kain's hands would have crushed him. Kain tried to grab the doll, but Natsu interrupted the move.

"Fire dragon wing slash!" he shouted, crossing his arms over and moving them apart. A criss-cross of fire was sent at Kain, causing him to miss Happy.

"I'm fired up now!" shouted Kain, moving with surprising speed towards Natsu.

"Hey! That's my line!" shouted Natsu, who covered his whole body in fire.

'_That's some impressive Fire-Bending,'_ thought Ronan. _'I need to talk to this guy.'_

As the two enemies ran towards each other, Ronan was too mesmerised- and possibly too scared- to interfere. Natsu went in for a punch shouting "Fire Dragon Iron Fi-" but he was interrupted as Kain's hit the boy straight into the sky, almost knocking him into Happy.

As he started to fall, Ronan realised that he was the only one left fighting. Kain realised the same thing, and before Ronan could even think, he directed the same attack at Ronan, knocking him into the air.

"_Holy crap this guy's powerful."_ Ronan realised "_How is he even doing this?"_ He then remembered that he was falling. Reaching into his belt, he grabbed for his glider that would help him control his descent, but there was nothing there. "_Shit, I must have left it-"_ where?

Natsu crashed loudly into the rocks below them, snapping Ronan out of his thoughts. His instincts just saved him enough for him to roll out of the way before he landed on the unconscious form. For the second time today, the wind was knocked out of him.

He tried to stand, but he realised he couldn't move his hand. Evidently, he had fallen so hard that he had embedded himself in the rocks. He started to try to bend them out of the way, but a scream from the other side of the clearing made him look up. Kain was moving Lucy closer and closer.

"Run Lucy!" shouted Natsu. "Save yourself- he'll kill you if you don't."

'_Some sound advice',_ Ronan thought. Instead, Lucy stood her ground. Reaching to her belt, Ronan saw her grab at a key.

'_What's she playing at…"_ he wondered.

"I'm not leaving you!" she stated. "Open: Gate of the Virgin- VIRGO!" she shouted. Nothing happened.

'_That was strange. What was she expecting?'_

"I'm out of magic," said Lucy, a look of horror on her face. Kain approached her, grabbing her by the head. She began to cry, and Ronan realised that Kain was squeezing her skull.

'_He's a monster.'_

"Lucy!" shouted Happy, flying towards her. Ronan began to bend the rocks around him, but without being able to move, it was proving difficult.

"It's OK," was Lucy's response. "I'd rather die here than live without you all anyway." She started to cry.

'_That's an odd thing to say.'_

"You don't know what I can do," said Kain, threateningly. "You will go through so much pain, and I will crush you, and, at the end, I will snap you in half." He began to squeeze harder. Inexplicably, Lucy smiled through her tears, clinging to some impossible hope. Then, without warning her body twisted in mid-air, and she kicked Kain in the stomach.

"What the-" Kain looked surprised.

"I grabbed the doll while I was in mid-air," said a voice next to Ronan. He looked around and saw Natsu struggling to stand up. "I'm all fired up now. Try this!" he said. Ronan focussed on Natsu's hands, and saw him holding Mr. Cursey, controlling it so that Lucy starting pummelling Kain, her body contorting in all sorts of uncomfortable looking positions

"WHAT!?" shouted Lucy. "STOP IT- HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF JOINTS?!"

"Yeah!" replied Natsu. "Pork joints are delicious!"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"

'_She sure is loud.'_ Ronan thought. Then realised what Natsu's plan was.

"Fire Dragon-!" the dragon-slayer began.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING I'M NOT A DRAGON SLAYER YOU CAN'T-" Lucy began

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt the user!" interrupted Natsu. "I think." he added in a much lower voice.

"I HEARD THAT NATSU DON'T YOU DARE-"

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" shouted Natsu, and doll's hand caught fire. At the same time, Lucy's hand caught fire. Screaming, she punched Kain in the stomach repeatedly, eventually falling from his grasp. Ronan could only watch on as this clearly insane young man tortured his comrade and forced her to beat up their opponent, with no concern for her personal safety.

"Happy!" shouted Natsu, and the cat- '_No, he's an Exceed, isn't he?'-_ came flying over. "Go on Happy- Max Speed!" Natsu threw the doll to Happy.

"Aye Sir!" shouted Happy, who caught the doll, and flew high into the air. A flash of light went over the Exceed, and his speed suddenly doubled, then tripled. Lucy followed suit, her fate following that of the doll. Her whole body caught fire, and she began to scream, even louder than before.

When Happy had gone as high as he could go, he turned around, aiming Lucy at Kain, and he flew, downwards, even faster than before.

"Secret Attack!" shouted Natsu and Happy in unison. "Incredible Flying Lucy!" a large circle filled with glyphs and strange patterns appeared in front of Lucy's quickly descending body. The glyph tripled Lucy's speed, and her flames seemed to intensify. She flew into Kain, knocking him off his feet, and knocking him out. The ground shook around him, and Ronan finally stood up, swaying to keep his balance. As the dust settled, he saw Natsu and Happy cheering and whooping.

"What. The Hell. Was that!?" Ronan shouted. Realising he had said it out loud, he covered his mouth.

"Weren't you listening?" asked Natsu. 'It's the Incredible Flying Lucy!' His expression changed to curiosity. "Who are you, anyway? I've never seen you at the guild."

"I- guild?" questioned Ronan.

"Natsu!" interrupted Happy. "We need to get the Master back to the camp!" A strange gurgling noise made them all look around. Lucy was stood up, swaying considerably, her eyes wide.

"Come on, it didn't hurt that much," said Natsu. Lucy didn't respond, except to make another sound. "This way!" Natsu ignored her, and sped off.

"Wait!" shouted Ronan. "Can I come with you?!" Lucy nearly collapsed on the floor. Ronan caught her, and put her arm over his shoulder. Carrying most of her weight, he followed Natsu and Happy- or at least, the trail of trampled undergrowth they had left behind.

After only a few minutes, Lucy was able to walk on her own again, and they soon found Natsu and Happy in yet another clearing. Natsu was in the process of picking up a short, withered old man, assisted by another Exceed. This one was pure white, and her name… Carla?

'_How do I know that?'_

"Wait!" he shouted, not wanting them to run off without him again. Natsu turned to face him and put the Master's arms around his neck, holding them together.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Ro- someone who wants to help. My name's Ronan." He added. More seemed to be expected of him. "And I'm the Avatar," he said, slightly hoping to impress. Instead, they just looked confused.

"What's an Avatar?" asked Happy.

"What? You've never heard of-"

"There's no time for that," interrupted Carla. "Wendy's almost out of magic, and Master Makarov is still no better. We have to get back to the camp."

"Right, I'll explain later." Ronan agreed. "Which way to camp?"

Natsu sniffed the air, the master draped over his back. "This way," he told them, and set off.

"Slow down Natsu!" shouted Lucy. "We have to stay together, we're all nearly out of magic!" Natsu was already too far away to hear. Those remaining all sighed in unison and ran to catch up to him, Ronan among them. '_How does he know?'_ He mused.

"Does he always run off like this?" he panted.

"All. The. Time." was Lucy's response.

"Right. Doesn't it get annoying?"

"Yep."

"Hmm."

Ronan's train of thought was interrupted as the companions all stopped in their tracks. They could all, Ronan included, feel something approaching- something ominous, and absurdly powerful. Without warning, each of them suddenly fell to the ground. Trying to stand up, Ronan realised he was being pushed. Looking up, he saw another of the strange glyphs hanging above him- and he could see that the others were in a similar situation.

"Fairy Tail," a voice said, scathingly. Where had he heard that name before? It was a guild, wasn't it?

'_Except… what's a guild?'_ Realising he was getting distracted, he thought what to do. Around him, Natsu had somehow stood up and was arguing with whoever had put them here. He could feel the power of whoever was pushing against them emanating from one spot. Closing his eyes, he remembered his lessons…

'_He's over there…'_ Ronan decided. Tensing his muscles, he connected with the ground, and he _saw_ their assailant. Tensing his entire body, Ronan willed the ground to move, to knock over the mysterious man, to break whatever spell he was doing to them. The rumbling that Ronan was causing intensified quickly, and he felt, no- _saw_ the enemy fall over, and felt the pressure on his body lift- he could stand up! In an instant, he prepared to attack. He forced the energy in his body into an imbalance, and he started to move his arms and torso in a prescribed sequence to speed up the process. He directed the conflicting energies to his fingertips, and a few seconds later, he snapped them together like similar poles on a magnet. The energies collided, jarring, and Ronan sent a stream of lightning at the enemy. He felt the air around him move, and he noticed Wendy next to him, inhaling massively.

"Sky Dragon- Roar!" she shouted, and a great jet of air accompanied Ronan's lightning towards the enemy.

"_How do they _do _that?_" The enemy was knocked back slightly by the air, though he managed to dodge the lightning. His response, was simply to hold up his hands.

"Do you know how to fly?" he asked, and before Ronan's thought even got past '_What is he ta-'_, he felt his head crashing down into the ground, and he knew no more.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Seconds later, it seemed, he opened his eyes. He felt warmth spread through his entire body. He realised he was lying on his back. He slowly opened his eyes to see the form of a girl above him- a girl with short, silver hair and blue eyes. She smiled at him.

"Are you feeling better, Ronan-san?"

'_Lissana…?'_ he whispered, and fell back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Trying to Fit in

_**OK, fast update for this one because I'd already written the first few chapters when I published the first. Pretty pretty PLEASE review. Even if it's just a 'This is quite good' or a 'This is awful, give up now'.**_

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_**Chapter 2**_

Ronan awoke again shortly after to the sound of shouting, and more rumbling. Shaking his head, he sat bolt upright. The camp was under attack!

"Solid script- Iron!" he heard a female voice shout out. He looked around and saw a glyph appear in front of the girl. This glyph was replaced by the word 'Iron,' which shot forward and fell on top of… was that a giant chicken? He quickly assessed the field- Freid, Bickslow, and Elfman (_how did I know their names?!_) were fighting the giant chicken and a… giant goat? Cana and Lisanna were fighting the giant, white, Voodoo, magician thing from earlier, and Levy was moving between the two.

"We'll have a better chance of beating him if we work as a team!" Levy shouted, and joined Cana and Lisanna against Kain.

Elfman was pushed back by an attack from the goat, again involving a letter appearing the in the air. From above, the chicken began to pelt Bickslow and Fried with eggs that were somehow firing from its mouth.

"A real man uses real attacks!" Elfman accused.

"Where did the others go?" Ronan asked.

"Ah, you've woken up- now that's manly!"

"What?"

"I am told you're a fire and lightning wizard," stated Fried. "Could you perchance set your way about burning these adversaries of ours?"

"Actually I'm- wait, a _wizard_? I'm not-"once again he was interrupted- this time by a barrage of eggs from the giant chicken. Ronan quickly turned around and destroyed them in mid-air with quick waves of fire.

"I'll distract this one!" Ronan shouted, suddenly wanting to prove himself to these people. "You three deal with the goat!"

'_Never have I uttered a stranger sentence…_' he thought. But, without hesitating, he began the sequence for another shot of lightning bending, to aim for the chicken. Before he could react, he was hit in the head with what felt like a giant egg. Without Ronan to give it direction, the energy in his body rebalanced too soon, and he started to electrocute himself. Desperately, he re-directed it in a random direction; hitting a tree and set it alight. Ronan cursed and sent a piece of the Earth at the chicken. The chicken easily dodged and shot a single, giant egg at Ronan. Ronan back flipped (using his airbending to help) out of the way; as his feet reached the apex of their backflip, he shot a jet of air at the chicken, hoping to throw off his flight.

Meanwhile, with odds of three against one, the fight against the goat-man was going well. Freed was cancelling out the goat's runes at every possible opportunity, giving Bickslow's minions the opportunity to repeatedly dive bomb the goat. It wasn't beaten yet, however, and the goat unleashed a large set of runes that pushed back Bickslow and Fried. Elfman attacked from behind; his arm huge and jet black. The goat saw this coming, though, and sent out a kick aimed at Elfman's stomach.

"Serves me right; attacking from behind is _not_ manly!" The goat sent out another rune, this time pointing at Elfman, and the word 'HOLD' seemed to grab and tightly squeeze the Takeover mage. Try as he might, Elfman couldn't wriggle free.

Another barrage of eggs reminded Ronan that he was not yet done with his own fight.

"You won't beat me-peron!" the chicken cawed at him. "I was considered for the Seven Kin-peron!"

"I have literally no idea what you're talking about." replied Ronan, honestly.

He changed his stance and sent several pieces of the ground flying at the chicken. These attacks were again dodged with relative ease, but the chicken was unable to attack, and it began to fly upwards, trying to get out of range.

Seeing the chicken's plan, Ronan again changed his stance and started to re-direct the air around the chicken away from its wings. This seemed to confuse the chicken, and it began to fall.

"Special attack- golden egg- peron!" the chicken shouted in panic, and a large, golden egg shot out of the chicken's mouth. Ronan barely had time to dodge it as it landed. A few seconds later, the egg exploded, knocking Ronan to the ground. He quickly recovered, using the energy of the fire around him to help him stand up. He sent that fire straight up the chicken. The chicken responded by shooting another barrage of eggs towards him, but didn't quite manage to dodge the fire. The eggs exploded into a large wall of what appeared to be fried eggs (_Fried eggs?) _ between Ronan and the chicken. This confused Ronan for a second, but he decided to try and jump over it, using his fire as a boost. As he approached the top of the wall, he realised he wasn't going to make it, so he instead straightened out end sent a jet of fire through the egg wall, creating a hole large enough for him to fall through.

Before he even made it part way through the hole, the chicken appeared in front of him, and kicked Ronan back into the wall. Ronan fell several feet to the ground, the air this time not quite knocked out of him.

Panting nonetheless, Ronan made a decision. '_Desperate time call for desperate measures,'_ he thought, and smiled evilly at the chicken.

"Hey chicken-boy, look at this- I guarantee it'll be egg-citing!" he shouted at the chicken.

'_Egg-citing?'_ He thought. '_What the hell kind of pun was that?'_ Ignoring his slip-up, Ronan bowed his head and closed his hands into fists. The energy in his body surged suddenly, and when Ronan looked up again, his eyes were glowing a blue-ish white; in fact, his entire body bathed in a soft blue-white light.

"I am ending this. Now," he stated. He moved the air into a vortex underneath him, pushing him up until he was at the same level as the chicken. Looking straight into its eyes, Ronan saw that the chicken was terrified. This was good. Before the chicken could think of anything to say, Ronan bent the fire that had been spreading rapidly among the trees towards the chicken's head, whirring in a circle. The circle began to move faster and faster as Ronan added more heat from his own body; in a couple of seconds it became an inferno singeing the chicken's head. Moments later, fire had engulfed the chicken's entire body. In a last ditch attempt to free himself, the chicken opened its mouth to send another golden egg at Ronan, but the moment the chicken's mouh was open, Ronan used his feet to push air into the chicken's gullet.

"Please don't kill me-peron!" the chicken begged, shouting at the top of its voice above the screams of agony. Ronan merely smirked, and fired another jet of air to push the chicken away. The chicken flew backwards over the forest, screaming and unable to do anything about it.

"You're our last hope of promotion-peron!" it shouted at the goat, before it landed several miles away with a far away, but audible _crash_.

The goat-man looked up at where the sound had come from, and saw a fully realised Avatar bearing down upon him. His eyes were aglow, and there was a grim look to his whole being. The air current had been enhanced by a similar current of fire wrapped around it. Ronan stopped before the goat, and lifted two great rocks into the air.

"Surrender." Ronan stated. It was not a suggestion. The goat recoiled in fear. Already injured by the combined attacks of Bickslow and Freed, and seeing that Elfman had managed to get out of the HOLD rune, and now facing the prospects of being squished, burnt, or both, the goat dropped to its knees and began to gabble.

"Run." Ronan ordered, and run it did. The goat needed no more encouragement, and ran away from the campsite, tail between its legs and muttering something about 'Hades… promotion… only ones left with any reasonable…'.

Turning around one last time, Ronan saw that the girls had defeated Kain. He slowly put down the boulders and lowered himself to the ground. When he landed, he collapsed into a heap.

"We did it!" he heard Levy shout. Ronan hadn't felt so weak since that whole business with the Water-Tribes.

'_Wait, what's a water tribe?'_

"What the hell was that?!" shouted Elfman. "Killing someone like that chicken isn't very Manly!"

"It won't have killed him." Ronan assured the group. "When he lands, he can just roll around and he'll eventually put the fire out. He'll be a little burnt up, and possibly quite shaken, but apart from a few scars, he'll be fine."

"Scars are manly!" Elfman declared, apparently accepting this as an answer.

"Thank you for helping, Ronan-san." Lisanna said. "I saw what you did there. How did you do that with the fire and lightning? And those rocks too! I've never seen magic like that before."

"Oh. Actually, I'm the Avatar." This was met with blank looks. "The Avatar? Surely you've heard of me?"

"Just because you're famous wherever you came from, doesn't mean you're famous here," said Cana, approaching them. "This is Fairy Tail; there's lots of famous wizards here."

"Wizards? Like who?"

"Well, over _there_," Cana gestured towards the sleeping forms, "is Mirajane Strauss, also known as-,"

"As the she-devil, yes." Ronan completed the sentence.

"So you have heard of her."

"Yes. Actually, no. I _know _her."

"How do you know Mira-nee?" inquired Lisanna.

"Yeah, I've never seen a Man like you before, and I've been with Mirajane since-" Elfman stopped mid-sentence, looking uncomfortably at Lisanna.

"Since you thought you'd accidentally killed your sister, yes," again, Ronan completed the sentence. The he gasped as he realised he probably shouldn't have said that. "But I don't know why I know that." He quickly tried to correct his faux-pas. "I know lots of things that I don't. Like you, I know all of your names- you're Levy, and you're Lisanna, Elfman, Bickslow, Fried, and Cana," he gestured to each of them in turn. "And I know your powers too. And I know the other's powers- Natsu's a fire dragon slayer, Lucy's a celestial wizard, Happy and Carla are Exceeds- but I don't know what any of that _means_."

"Porlyusica may be able to aid you when we return to Magnolia." Freed interrupted. "You appear to be suffering from some form of memory loss. But for now we should ascertain whether or not the Salamander and Lady Titania require our assistance in defeating Hades."

"I won't leave Mira-nee," said Lisanna, firmly. "But you all go, we shouldn't be attacked again."

"I'll stay too!" shouted Ronan, a little too loudly and quickly. "I have some healing ability." He explained. "Perhaps I can wake Mirajane and the others up."

"That might be a good idea, actually. Apparently since the tree fell down, any of them could die any moment. Do what you can," stated Cana. "The rest of us will go and help…" at that moment, a mighty roar was heard. Blasting through the entire forest, a combination of lightning and fire scorched over their heads. For a few seconds, the entire world was silent. This was soon replaced by a slight buzzing as Ronan's ears tried to recover.

"Now _that_ was manly!" claimed Elfman.

"Sounds like Natsu's having too much fun without us," suggested Bickslow.

"I agree," said Cana. "Let's go!" The rest of the Fairy Tail members ran off towards the source of the noise and fire and lightning and smoke and general destruction, leaving Lisanna and Ronan alone with the patients on the ground.

Ronan leant over Mirajane. There didn't seem to be any obvious bodily injury. In fact, looking down the line, he saw that, before the camp attack, the people who were conscious had done quite a good job binding a dressing broken bones and the like. Mostly they seemed to be suffering from exhaustion.

"Do you have any water?" he asked.

"I think they're past hot towels by now," suggested Lisanna. "Besides, our water got destroyed when we were attacked by that Grimoire Heart guild."

"So it spilled into the ground?" Lisanna nodded. "OK," said Ronan. "Where did it spill?" Lisanna gestured, and Ronan ran over to the spot. He felt the ground, almost caressing it, and slowly he tried to connect with the water he could feel. "It's too deep," he said aloud, "and I haven't used water-bending in a while. How far away is the nearest stream?"

"A couple of miles that way," she gestured. "But if you need water, we could collect the rainwater in these buckets we just happen to have lying around." This made Ronan laughed.

"I'd forgotten it was raining- wait a second." Ronan changed his stance again, and felt the water around him, felt the way it flowed. He brought his hands up, moving in circular and spiral patterns, matching the way the water moved… and the water moved with him. Smiling, he quickly gathered up a small amount of it and brought it over to the make-shift medicine tent. Lisanna's eyes widened.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"I was taught it by my water-bending master," he replied.

"Wtaer-bending Master? Who was that?" she enquired.

"It was…" who _was_ it? He knew that he was taught by a water-bending master. That they were _friends_ even. But what was his _name_?

"I… can't remember." Lisanna looked sympathetic.

"Porlyusica can be a little coarse, but she's excellent at what she does." Lisanna assured him. "She'll be able to help when we get back to Magnolia."

"OK. Thanks, Lisanna." He began to work on the (he noticed) _very_ curvaceous body in front of him. Water was the source of life, and it was with that element that water-benders had long ago learnt to save people from death. Ronan knew that, and was now in the process of putting thousands of years of study by hundreds of different masters into place to save these people that he barely knew- despite the fact that he knew them all quite well. That latter fact was constantly putting him off. He moved the water over Mirajane's injuries, soothing them. Soon, it began to restore Mirajane's life-force, and in no time she was breathing normally, though still sleeping.

"That's enough on nee-san," Lisanna assured him. "I don't want you to run out of magic before you've healed the others."

"Run out? How can you run out of bending? Where there's water, I can bend it. Too much can make me tired, but this is just healing."

"You're strange," Lisanna said.

"Not as strange as you lot." Ronan objected, moving on to the next patient- a bigger man with long black hair- intimidating at first glance, but Ronan guessed that there was more to him than that.

"Gajeel…" he whispered. How did he _know_ that? He again collected some water and started to bring Gajeel from death's brink.

"What is this place, anyway?" he said to Lisanna.

"This is Tenrou Island, the sacred island of Fai-,"

"I know that, I mean what country? Is this some Earth-Kingdom conspiracy? What was this fight all about? Why the hell was I attacked by some voodoo master, and what's with the flying cat?"

"Country? This is the Kingdom of Fiore, on Earth-Land. I've never heard of an Earth Kingdom."

"I know, me neither."

"But you just said-,"

"I _know_!" said Ronan, dropping the water, slightly soaking Gajeel. He put his head in his hands. "Things like that just keep slipping out. I don't know where I've come from, I only slightly know where I am, and I don't know what's with the weird bending here!"

"It's not bending, it's magic," explained Lisanna. "Apparently, what you call bending, we call magic. For example: I use take-over magic. Watch." Before Ronan's eyes, a glyph appeared in front of Lisanna, and she took on the form of a large, humanoid cat. "See? Magic. My brother and sister are the same. Well, my sister's _way_ more powerful. In one of her forms, she destroyed an entire town with pretty much a single thought."

"That's scary," said Ronan, picking up the water again and moving it over Gajeel.

"M-hm. The master banned her from using that form again. But everyone in Fairy Tail's a little destructive- when Natsu, Gray and Gajeel get into a fight, I'd recommend moving out of the way." Ronan chuckled at this.

"So, what other types of magic are there?"

"Well, there's maker magic, which is quite common, but can be very powerful. There's two mages in Fairy Tail that use it- Gray Fullbuster and Laki Olietta. Laki's quite good, although she hasn't had much job experience. Gray's very powerful though- he's even taken down Natsu a few times, though Natsu would never admit it"

"Natsu's a dragon slayer, right?" asked Ronan, moving over to Makarov.

"Yes. Dragon slayers are…"

As they moved down each of the patients, Lisanna began to explain the ins and outs of magic in Fiore. Ronan quickly realised that he knew most the information already, he just didn't _know_ he knew it. This was getting to be a bad habit.

A couple of minutes after they had finished, tending to the patients, they heard another large explosion, as well as a loud creaking noise. For no apparent reason, something appeared to be lifting out of the sea, far away from the camp. At first glance it was shapeless, too enormous to comprehend, but Ronan blinked, changing his perspective, and he realised it was a great tree, bigger than any tree had any right to be, lifting out of the water. Not only that, the tree was repairing itself. Ronan assumed that this was some type of magic Lisanna hadn't told him about, but as the tree reached its final stages of reparation, Ronan felt a small surge, and the patients began to wake up.

"Who's this?" one of them whispered.

"I dunno, is he with Grimoire Heart?"

"Lisanna's with him."

Ronan heard the mutterings. "There's no time to explain." He decided he couldn't be bothered. "Your friends are trying to take down Hades by themselves- they might need your help!"

"He's right," agreed Makarov, dusting himself off. "Whoever you are, I know it's you that healed me. Are you willing to help us?"

"Of course," Ronan replied. He had never doubted it; these were people he wanted to be friends with.

"Good," said the master. "Let's go!" Together, they ran off towards the source of the explosion, catching up with the other members who had been shaken by the tree's ascent to the island. The noise turned out to have come from a nearby beach. On the beach, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, and the Exceeds were apparently unable to attack- they were surrounded by dozens of figures, and doing nothing to get out of their situation. At the approach of the other members of Fairy Tail, the assailants turned around and caught sight of another figure on the beach, lying flat on the ground with wide eyes, his form completely unmoving.

"That's Master Hades!" one of them pointed out. Disappointingly, as soon as the assailants realised this, they surrendered. The newly revived members of Fairy Tail all threateningly prepared their attacks- this was all the 'encouragement' needed for the assailants to choose to run away. Natsu and the others led a victory whoop, jumping into the air. Quickly the other members joined in; everyone hugging everyone else (with a few notable exceptions).

Somehow symbolic, dawn chose this moment to break.

"You did it!" Levy shouted. "How on Earth did you take him down?"

"Well, a standard combination of me being awesome," said Natsu.

"One person's not a combination, Natsu," Happy pointed out.

"It is when I'm around. Besides, you didn't let me finish." Natsu retorted. "A combination of me being awesome _and_ the world's best guild showing what we can do," he finished. "Oh, and a little help from a certain someone…" he gestured, looking over to an imposing figure stood slightly apart from the rest of them.

Ronan held back from the hugs and the talking, lost in his own thoughts and feeling slightly out of place. Gray caught sight of him standing apart from everyone else, and quickly jumped to a conclusion.

"Wait, who's that?!" Gray gestured at Ronan, and put his left fist onto his right palm. "Ice-make- Prison!" he shouted, and Ronan found himself stuck inside a cage made out of ice.

"You idiot!" shouted Natsu to Gray. "He's on our side, he helped me defeat Kain!"

"Oh yeah?!" Gray shouted back to him. "How was I supposed to know that, you pyro?!" Inexplicably (there had been a few inexplicables on this day), they put their heads against each other, growling slightly, and the air around them changed colour- blue behind Gray, and orangey-red behind Natsu.

"Maybe you should ask before you attack someone, ice-brain!"

"Yeah, says you? What if he was one of those Seven Kin you fire-maniac!"

"We defeated them all, that's why they ran away!"

"Well what if it was Zeref?!"

"He looks nothing like Zeref!"

"The hair's the sa-,"

"Stop it you two!" Erza interrupted, splitting them apart. "Natsu, melt the ice around our new friend- and try not to burn him."

"I'm all out of magic." Natsu said, hugging Gray in one arm. "I don't even know how Gray was able to make that prison."

"It doesn't take much" explained Gray, also hugging Natsu "- and Hades attacked me less than he attacked you. Besides, he's tried melting my ice before, remember? It's hard for one wizard to undo what another wizard's done."

"It doesn't matter- I can do it myself." Ronan assured them all. Ice was just water with rock-like tendencies- hard and unyielding on the outside, but still the flowing, ever changing element it always turned out to be at its heart. He pushed his arms out to the side- and then stopped. This was not normal ice. Normal ice was frozen water- this was just… ice. This never was, nor did it have any intention of being, anything other than what it was right now. Ronan thought for a moment.

_Hard and unyielding. Like Rock._ Ronan changed his stance and stamped on the ground while pushing his hands onto the bars of the cage. The cage disintegrated.

"Impressive," said Erza. "It's rare to see Gray's ice-magic so easily bested."

"It's just another element." Ronan shrugged.

"I think I want to get to know your magic better," suggested Erza.

"Why don't we all get back to the camp," suggested the Master, his voice above everyone else's despite not being particularly loud.

"Good idea- I'm starving!" shouted Natsu.

"Aye Sir!" agreed Happy, and the two practically flew to camp- without wings.

"If Natsu thinks there's food there, there's probably food there," said Erza. "Let's go."

The rest of the group made their way back to camp much more slowly. Master briefly stayed behind, Erza suggested not asking why, but eventually he caught up them all.

"I was just telling Ronan here how he might be able to join the guild." Erza said as the Master approached. "What do you think?"

"I think that'd be fine. I'd need to see you fight before I let you out on missions, but I'm sure you'll be just great."

"I didn't need to do anything to join," said Lucy.

"You were a celestial wizard with 3 gold keys- I was hardly going to pass that up, now, was I? Especially after Natsu gave you such a glowing review." Lucy blushed slightly. "And look how well that worked out- 10 of the 12 gold keys. If it wasn't for you, today would have gone much worse. Yes, much worse…" the Master trailed off, thinking.

"So…" said Ronan. "You must be Lucy Heartphilia? I helped today when you were fighting -,"

"-that big guy, yes. I remember." Lucy said. "I still want to know how you broke out of Gray's cage. Even Lyon's had trouble doing that in the past…"

"I suppose I'm sort of a… an elemental wizard." Ronan tried to explain in a way the celestial mage would understand. "If it's related to Fire, Air, Water, or Earth, I can… sort of… bend it to my will. Where I come from, that's called bending."

"Wow, and where is that, exactly?"

"That's just the problem, I have no idea."

"What?"

"Ronan has been having problems with his memory," Lisanna interrupted their conversation. Ronan looked over at Lisanna and smiled at her, thankful for the chance to not talk, when he suddenly felt weak. Maybe it was the fact that his brain was hurting from trying to work all this out, maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was just this place affecting him badly, or, more likely, a combination of the three. In any case, his legs suddenly collapsed under him, and one again he knew no more.


	3. Chapter 3: Finding your Feet

_Hi everyone! Sorry I've not updated in a while- university has been a thing, and I really didn't like this chapter. The 'story' properly starts soon, I just wanted all this exposition out of the way._

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"Excuse me!" someone was shaking Ronan awake.

"Flrglrrbl…." he muttered, trying to shuffle into a more comfortable position. What was he lying on?

"Who's he?" a male voiced asked.

"No idea," the female voiced answered. "But if he's here he might know what happened." Ronan realised they were talking about him. How did they not know who he was?! He opened his eyes and was greeted by a strange sight- a woman with green hair smiling at him. Behind her was a man wearing a poncho.

"Good, he's woken up," the man said. "I'll help find the others; you take him back to the ship."

"Good idea," said the woman with green hair to the man in the poncho. Turning to Ronan, she held out her hand to help him up. "Come on, I'll show you where everyone else is."

Ronan's head still hurt. Shaking it to clear his mind of fog, he looked around. He was in a forest.

"Where… where am I?" he asked.

"Tenrou Island, near Fiore," the girl answered. "When did you wash up here?"

"I don't… know." What was going on? He felt that he _should_ be here, but he didn't know where _here_ was. "Is this some Fire Nation conspiracy?"

"Fire Nation? I've never heard of that," the girl answered. "Come on; let's get back to the ship. My name's Bisca, by the way," she added.

"Bisca…" Ronan pondered. "I used to know someone called Bisca, I think".

"I doubt it; I'm from the East. I'm the only Bisca round here."

"Maybe…" Ronan was sure he knew a Bisca, but didn't really want to correct her. Following her lead, he set off into the forest. The pair spent the next few minutes in silence, occasionally trying to start conversation, but then realising that there was nothing to say. Looking around, Ronan saw signs that there had been a big fight here. He could see scorched trees and charred ground. Everything was dripping wet, as if a great deluge had recently beset the forest.

Eventually, the trees parted and Ronan saw that they were approaching a beach.

"We're nearly here," Bisca said. "The ship's just over there." Ronan looked where she was pointing and saw a large wooden carrack anchored offshore. In front of the ship, on the beach, was a group of people he recognised. Suddenly, everything clicked into place.

"I do know a person called Bisca," he shouted at her, "you!" and ran down to the group at the beach, leaving Bisca thoroughly confused.

"Hey everyone! Remember-" he was cut short as he realised what was going on- everyone present seemed to be fighting with each other.

"You've didn't beat me, I left 'cos I was hungry!"

"Yeah right, you'd just eaten like 15 bowls of chilli!"

"Exactly, I was hungry!"

"You're a greedy bastard flame-brain."

"Talking while fighting is so _not_ manly!"

"Well shut up and try to hit me then!"

To the side were stood Erza, Lucy, and a man with black hair and a green shirt.

"Aren't you going to tell them to stop?" Lucy was saying to Erza.

"According to Warren here we've been asleep for seven years, so I'm just gonna let them get it out of their system," Erza responded, indicating that the man with the green shirt was Warren. Ronan was getting a little tired of the whole 'revelations that aren't revelations' feeling by now.

"Well, when we find Levy and Cana, they'll have to stop," said Warren. "You'll want to get back to Magnolia soon, trust me." He put two fingers from each hand on his temples and appeared to be concentrate. "Alzack found them; they're on their way back," he said.

"We'd better get everyone together then," said Erza. Ronan chose this moment to announce his arrival by coughing. The three looked around.

"Bisca found me," he said. "Remember me? I was at the…"

"Yes, you're the one who turned Gray's Ice Cage into a puddle," Erza replied.

"What happened? One minute I was on my way back to camp with you all, the next, I wake up here."

"We were attacked," Erza informed him. "The Great Dragon Acnologia attacked the island."

"Acnologia?"

"You've never heard of Acnologia?" Lucy interjected. "He's the dark dragon, whose breath is like the heat of a thous-"

"Wow, your mind is f– " Warren interrupted, looking at Ronan. Lucy gasped in indignation.

"Warren! I've been away for seven years and one of the first things you do is interrupt me when I'm trying to explain something important? I can't believe you would do that to me!" her voice got higher as her indignance rose. Erza just laughed.

"Seven – wait, seven years?" Ronan enquired.

"Yep, that's how long you've been asleep." Bisca approached the group, casually holding a long metal tube over her shoulder.

"Alzack's got everyone else." Warren informed her.

"I know, that's why I'm here. It'll take a while to calm this lot down."

"Well, nearly everyone's on the ship- Elfman, Gajeel, Gray and Natsu were just desperate to let of some steam."

Erza's words appeared to be literally true, as the heat of the battle below began to vaporise the surface of the nearby sea.

"Cut it out you guys!" Bisca shouted, but the fighting was too loud.

"Leave it to me," Erza suggested. Bisca, Lucy, and Warren stepped back. "Cut it OUT!" Erza shouted the last word, and within half a moment, all movement on the beach stopped as the four combatants ceased what they were doing mid action. Natsu and Gajeel even managed to stop in mid-air. "Get on the ship, _now_" Erza commanded. To Ronan's surprise, all four of them hung their heads and calmly made their way to the ship.

"She's scary," Ronan thought out loud - then he saw Erza smile to herself.

'_Or maybe not_,' he re-assessed, and made his way to the ship.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After quickly despatching of some thugs who were attacking the guildhouse, the members set about repairing the damage that had been done over the past seven years. Ronan was surprised how quickly everyone adapted to having been gone. The Guildmaster, Mirajane, and Erza went off somewhere, something about 'exacting payment.' Not knowing what else to do with himself, Ronan stayed around Lisanna.

"So… what happens now? With the guildhouse restored, will people start giving Fairy Tail jobs again?" he asked.

"I don't know, Ronan-san," she replied. "Hopefully people will remember what things used to be like, before the attack on the island –"

"Oh yeah, I meant to ask. What happened there? I heard something about a dragon?"

"Of course, you fainted, didn't you? Well, we were all celebrating the defeat of Grimoire Heart, when we were suddenly attacked by the great dragon Acnologia."

"Yeah, I heard about that. What happened next?"

"I don't know." Lisanna responded simply. "I remember that all of us together couldn't defeat him, but the last thing I remember is all of us stood together, and the dragon inhaling, ready to wipe us all out… then I woke up."

"Oh. Does anyone know what happened?"

"I heard a rumour that it might have been the spirit of Mavis, the founder of Fairy Tail. They she lives on the island and protects all of her children who go there."

"And what do you think?"

"I don't know. But it doesn't matter, does it? We're alive and it's seven years later, and we've got a lot to do to start fixing everything." Lisanna finished, getting back to picking up the tables. At this, Ronan picked up a brush and started sweeping the floor, with limited success. It was a mundane enough task and it distracted him from the anxiety in his mind about what was going on in his life.

"Oh." Lisanna stopped, mid action. "You're going to need somewhere to sleep tonight!"

"Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that." Ronan paused for a moment, thinking. "Are there any inns around? Shit, I haven't got any money!" Ronan started to panic. "Shit!" he shouted, louder than last time, and punched some fire from his fists towards a wall.

"Ronan-san, calm down!" Lisanna pleaded. "I'm sure you'll find somewhere to stay. And when the guild starts getting jobs, you can start to make money too."

"Well, where do you live?"

"What? Oh, umm you can't stay with me," Lisanna said, "I live in Fairy Hi-"

"No! I wasn't saying I wanted to- that is, not that I don't want- no! I mean, I wasn't asking to stay with you, I was just hoping for ideas."

"Well, Fairy Valley might have some rooms spare, but they're quite expensive and they don't take to exceptions."

"Exceptions?"

"Well, you'll need money, and Fairy Valley and Fairy Hills are quite expensive. Speaking of which…"

"Fairy Hills is out." Macao chose this moment to interrupt the conversation. "Those of us without houses have been sleeping in rooms the second floor. It's not much, but it's better than sleeping on the streets. It's not like we've needed the floor for S-Class missions." He sounded quite bitter.

"Oh." Lisanna looked saddened by the news.

"Don't worry, your things are fine- Blue Pegasus has been very kind to us these past seven years, and they've stored all but the most personal things at their guildhouse."

"Oh. So, is everyone sleeping here tonight?" Ronan asked.

"Ummm… no. I've got Wakaba looking into hotels until everything's up and running again, but the guild doesn't have much money, so I don't know how tightly everyone'll have to squeeze in."

"I think I can help with that." Lucy walked in to the guildhouse, looking quite sad. Natsu was holding her hand tightly. "My father…" she began sobbing, her words unintelligible.

"Her Father left her some money." Natsu explained. "Lucy was going to suggest using some of it to pay for our housing until we can sort everything out." Lucy nodded through her tears and turned her head to nuzzle into Natsu's shoulder for support. "It'll take a while for everyone to get their houses back," he continued, "but we'll be able to get through this if we all work together!"

Now something very strange happened. At this random and rather cheesy mention of working together, the entire guild… burst into whooping and cheering, forgetting Lucy's tears. Seconds later, a party had started. Alcohol was brought out form various undisclosed locations ('_where was Cana hiding that bottle?' _Ronan thought). This was such a strange change of mood the Ronan was slightly taken aback. These certainly were an emotional people. Lucy seemed to cheer up slightly as all the guild members thanked her in turn. Soon she was positively smiling. On the other hand, Ronan noticed, Macao was slowly approaching tears himself. Lisanna went up to him, and rubbed her arm on his back.

"Why are you crying, Macao- sensei?" she asked.

"I've not seen the guild-house like this since you all left…" Macao nearly sobbed the last word. "I just… really feel like Fairy Tail will be back on track. Everyone's so happy, it's almost like old times."

Ronan blinked at this. Macao wanted everything back like it was before. But Ronan thought differently- everything was new here, and he was kind of looking forward to it. Looking around the room, he saw Natsu holding Lucy, swaying to the unidentifiable music. He saw Jet and Droy arguing over Levy , until Gajeel came over and offered her a dance. He saw Cana and Mirajane drinking together. So much emotion, all in one place. And suddenly, as if something had clicked, Ronan felt like part of it.


	4. Chapter 4: FIGHT!

_Yaay, new chapter! Also, check out my collaboration with author shadowonthewall6 'Living with Erza Scarlet'. Furthermore, thank you to 'young heroes' for the short but wonderfully sweet review of this story so far. To everyone else- I live off reviews! They encourage me to write more, tell me when I'm doing a good job, and point out when I need to improve._

_Anyway, on with the story._

* * *

The pool was still and quiet. Ronan could hear nothing; he risked taking a quick drink. He had been out all day, and the heat of the forest was getting to him. The injuries to his legs and chest were throbbing. The blood had clotted, but Ronan was still finding breathing just that bit more difficult. As he stood up, he tensed as he heard something behind him- was it quiet, or just far away? He closed his eyes and slammed his right foot to the floor; the vibrations of the forest formed a vague image in his head. He tried to concentrate as he expanded his field of… vision? We'll go with vision. Close to him he could feel tiny animals burrowing desperately, as if trying to get as far away from the surface as quickly as possible. Further away, the animals has either succeeded or given up; for about half a mile away to Ronan's right, he could make out the shape of his enemy rushing towards him. Subtlety was apparently no longer necessary. Birds flew from their trees as the noise got louder and closer. Ronan readied himself, glad he was next to a pool. Apart from fire, Ronan had always liked water; the flowing movements of waterbending complimented well the more vigorous routines required to firebend. To this end, he gathered some water from the pool and bent it into a large sphere, ready to form any shape he liked. Suddenly, he realised that the forest had gone completely silent. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the changes in the air that would warn him of any impending attack. He felt a ripple, on his neck, and opened his eyes to see several dozen ice daggers flying at his face. He formed the water into a wall and tried to change it into ice. He managed to block a couple, but most smashed through the flimsy ice wall and gave him several cuts on his face, one of which was quite deep.

"ICE MAKE: FLOOR!" he heard his assailant shout, and Ronan barely had time to jump out of the way into the pool before most of the forest floor around him became covered in thick layer of ice. Inside the water, Ronan span his entire body around and made an air bubble around himself, and took a little (metaphorical and literal) breathing time.

"_Think,"_ he said to himself. OK, his enemy was using ice. The logical decision would be to use fire, but this guy had been fighting against fire for years. He could fight ice with ice and water, but his opponent was an ice wizard himself, and knew how to use it better than Ronan ever would. Earth might be good, but Ronan had never been very imaginative at using earth. That left air; useful for support and all, but not very good at attacking, in Ronan's mind. No, the only way would be to overwhelm him using all the elements at once- but he had promised himself he wouldn't use the Avatar state. He would have to be adaptable, able to change elements at a moment's notice. He collapsed the air bubble, and started to spin around in the water until he could propel himself out of the pool and above the forest floor. He was about to let the water drop him when he realised something about his opponent's attire.

"Gray! Your clothes!" Ronan shouted down. Gray looked down as if surprised at his nakedness. In that moment of distraction, Ronan let the water drop him and lifted a piece of earth underneath Gray to knock him off his feet. Gray, however, nimbly dodged out of the way- just in time for Ronan's ally to arrive.

"Why were you running? Scared that I'd beat you again?" said Natsu, almost literally exploding onto the scene- Ronan wasn't quite sure from where.

"Bastard! I was… uh… checking up with my partner to make sure _she_ hadn't been beaten by Ronan!"

"Yeah, well where is she then!?"

'_These guys sure spend a lot of time talking in the middle of a fight,'_ Ronan thought, making a mental note of this for the future. It was at this moment he felt a sharp tug on one of his legs, and then the water that he had landed next to changed shape and moved from underneath him to in front. Now facing him was a (naked, he noticed) slightly tired looking Juvia.

"You made Gray-sama worry about Juvia!" she shouted- before nearly smothering Ronan in what he could honestly say was the wettest hug he had ever received. "Juvia is thankful for your kindness, Ro-san!"

"Juvia!" Gray shouted. "This supposed to be a contest! Take him out!"

"Yes Gray-sama!" Juvia shouted, and when she next turned to Ronan her expression had changed to one of almost sorrow. "Juvia regrets what she must now do, but my Gray-sama has commanded that I destroy you." Her expression changed again (a very expressive woman, Ronan thought), and she raised one hand up. "Water: Slicer!" she shouted bringing down her arm in a slashing motion. Ronan was suddenly beset by what appeared to be blades made out of solid water.

"_Solid water…" _Ronan though, "_but it's not ice._" He dodged these more easily than the ice daggers, spinning and jumping over and around each blade like a leaf on the wind. When he reached the peak of his final jump he kicked his feet around and shot a blast of water from the pool into Juvia's back.

Juvia seemed unaffected by this attack; as the water hit her in the back she punched her fists one after the other towards Ronan.

"Water: Bullet!" she shouted. Each punch caused a large bullet-shaped ball of water to fire at Ronan. In attempting to dodge the onslaught Ronan misjudged his landing and fell to the floor, landing awkwardly on his arm.

Meanwhile, Gray and Natsu were doing a very good job of destroying the surrounding area.

"Ice Make: Geyser!" Gray roared, and the floor between the two rivals erupted as shards of ice shot up from the ground. Natsu jumped out of the way, but instead of moving away to get away from the attack, he jumped over the shards towards Gray.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" he shouted, coating his fist in fire and speeding up his attack.

"Ice Make: Ray!" was Gray's defence, as he raised both hands and a nearly solid mass of ice shards shot towards Natsu. Natsu steeled himself and tried to jump into the ray, his flamed fist leading the way. Natsu winced as the ice shards tore into him, but he had suffered far worse before. His fist made contact with Gray's face, knocking Gray off his feet and backwards towards the pool.

"Bastard! You've broken my nose again!"

"Yeah, well you shouldda jumped out of the way!"

"And give ground to a flame-brain like you?"

"Well I knocked you off your ass anyway!"

"Not for long! Ice Make: Ice Canon!" Gray formed his hands into place to hold a large bazooka that appeared in his arms. He began to fire balls of ice at Natsu, who was forced to dodge the missiles. Gray took this opportunity to stand up. Natsu noticed this and instantly prepared his next attack. Gray noticed this and also formed up his next attack.

"Ice Make- "Fire Dragon's-

SPEARS!" ROAR!"

They both shouted at the same time. Gray fired several large spears at Natsu that formed into a single wedge as they got closer to him. Natsu's Roar was a large spout of flame that singed the trees around them. The magics hit each other, and an explosion of ice and fire that was enough to knock both of them to the ground erupted between them.

Over on the other side of the pool, Juvia approached Ronan. He hadn't seen such a serious face in a long time.

"Juvia is thankful for Ronan causing Gray-sama to think of her," she said. "But Juvia cannot disobey the command of true love. She must defeat you so that she and Gray-sama can celebrate our victory… together." She suddenly took on a dreamy expression, staring into space; Ronan was sure he saw her eyes turn into small, pink hearts.

After taking a moment to process this sudden mood swing, he stood up, holding his arm to his chest. He widened his stance and, before Juvia could react, stamped his foot on the ground, causing a wall of earth to appear between him and his opponent. Before he could complete the manoeuvre and completely enclose Juvia within a prison of earth, he saw her erupt over the first wall, her eyes apparently ablaze.

"You interrupted Juvia's date with Gray-sama!" she declared, charging downwards towards Ronan, a tempest pushing her forwards. Ronan had never seen anyone so angry. He found himself backing up against a tree. She landed in front of him. "You interrupted Juvia when she was thinking about Gray-sama!" she repeated. "Water: Lock!" she pointed her hand towards Ronan, and he felt himself lift up as he was suddenly encased in a large sphere of water. He tried to move inside, but he found that he couldn't. He had seen water benders bend from inside ice before, even tried it a couple of times himself. But this was different. It didn't feel like water. It didn't feel like ice. It was, in the literal sense, solid water. Even Gray's Ice-Prison was something he could feel when he touched it. This was… unrelenting. He could feel the water pressing in around him. He noticed that he was holding his breath. What would happen if Juvia didn't let him go? Would she actually kill him? She was very emotional. Was he really to die here over a stupid game? He tried to extend his chi into the water, heating it and evaporating it. Soon he had made enough space to make an air bubble. He tried to think of anything he'd encountered like this before- and he remembered clay, the soft rock. It had a tendency to break apart, but it wanted to be solid. This was like the opposite- it was solid, but water always wanted to flow. If he pushed just _here_, he might be able to -

It was at this moment that, even through the layers of water, that he heard a dull _boom _from outside. He felt the water fall from around him. Looking down (he hadn't realised how far up he was), he saw a vast explosion rack through the forest. What happened? Had they been attacked for real? Was everyone OK? As he began to fall faster he started to control his breathing, pushing out vast quantities of air that stopped him falling too quickly. It was actually quite a pleasant fall, in the circumstances. As he lowered himself towards the ground he saw Juvia slowly stand up.

"How did you survive that explosion?!" Ronan exclaimed. "What was it?"

"Juvia has suffered worse. Juvia is also sorry for trying to kill Ro-san."

"It's… OK, I guess?" Ronan still wasn't quite sure what the last couple of minutes _were_. Juvia's moods were unpredictable at best, and downright dangerous at worst. He still wasn't sure if she had been actually trying to kill him. "Are Gray and Natsu OK? What was that explosion?"

"That will have been my Gray-sama." Juvia stated dreamily, offering no other explanation, but lifting her leg in the air and grasping her hands together near her (still naked) crotch.

"OK…" As the smoke cleared, Ronan saw Natsu and Gray both on the floor, panting.

"Had enough, ice-breath?" Natsu panted.

"Not even… started yet…" Gray claimed. At the epicentre of the explosion they were still talking big?! Ronan was astounded.

"Or we could go back to the guild?" Ronan suggested. The two were clearly exhausted. Ronan suddenly remembered his broken arm, and winced, as he tried to lift it up to look at it.

"Wendy can probably have a look at that back at the guild." Gray suggested.

"Don't worry, I can fix it up here," Ronan said. "You pick yourselves up… I don't know what you did, but it destroyed this whole area!"

"What? Not the whole forest?" said Natsu, surprised. "I must be hungry."

"Do you ever think about anything other than food, Natsu?" Gray patronised the dragon slayer.

"Juvia is only ever thinking about one thing!" Juvia piped up, her eyes looking longingly at Gray.

"Uh, thanks, Juvia," Gray offered. "We really should be heading back, though. It's gonna get dark soon. And this forest is crawling with bandits at night."

"How can that be? We started at midday, didn't we?" Ronan was confused.

"Yeah, we're a little out of practise," Gray said. "Our stamina's gone down."

"What? Before today, the longest fight I'd been in couldn't have lasted more than an hour!"

"Wow, your enemies where you come from can't be very good if they fall after an hour." Natsu said. For some reason, Ronan felt insulted. He was just about to retort, when Gray interrupted.

"We really should be getting back," he said.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Natsu said. "Scared I'll beat you again?"

Ronan sighed. It was going to be a long journey home. So, he used some water from the pool to send a shard of ice at Natsu's head, and quickly sent a jet of fire at Gray. The ensuing explosion was nothing sort of magnificent.

XXXXXXX

_A boy in a purple cloak was walking through a forest. Despite his youth, he had an air of confidence about him, making him almost swagger. His face was hidden by a mop of black hair as he looked to the ground. He paused for a second, appearing to hold his breath. Cocking his head slightly, he put his hand on the pommel of a jewelled sword he was wearing at his belt. He bent his legs slightly in anticipation of what was coming next. In one silken gesture, he drew his sword and sliced it through the air. A dull thump sounded as the two halves of a wolf, its leg in mid-pounce, landed in front of him. The boy wiped his sword on the wolf's rump and returned it to his sheath. He had not lifted his head even once._


End file.
